Does
your child think school is too easy?
According to a recent report, “Do Schools Challenge Our Students,“ a
large number of students think school is too easy. According to the report:
1.
More
than one-third high school seniors reported they hardly ever write about what
they read in class
2.
Three
out of four (72%) eight grade science students reported they aren’t being
taught engineering and technology
3.
Almost
a third of eighth grade students reported reading fewer than five pages a day
either in school or for homework[i]
Although the report’s findings are not
new, their recommendations to “ratchet” up standards by endorsing the federal
government’s Common Core program, is a rehashing of the failed standards
movement of the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The recommendations also continue the flawed ideology that the fault
lies with the students and not with our approach to teaching and learning.
Teaching
and learning is the foundation of education.
The approach to teaching and learning is based on an industrial era
model of the late 1800s to mid-1920s.
The approach was designed to train students to become cogs in the
various levels of industry (upper management, mid manager, shop worker,
etc). Teachers were trained to follow a
prescribed curriculum in a sequence that provides fragmented information that
is loosely connected (or not connected) to the next prescribed sequenced
course. Instruction came from textbooks
which focused on information that was necessary to the preparation of the
industrial society; learning came from rote memorization which hindered natural
learning and curiosity.
Over the years
there have been minor adjustments, but the ideological approach remains the
same. The refusal to acknowledge our
approach to teaching and learning is antiquated and out of touch with the needs
of the global economy, has created a continuous loop of failure, which churns
out unprepared graduates and places our country farther behind countries that
understand teaching and learning is a state of constant flux.
The
data obtained from students clearly demonstrates the problem exists in our
educational ideology. The student does
not control the curriculum, does not control pedagogy and instruction, and does
how much homework he/she receives.
However, there is no mention in the data about teacher effectiveness,
lack of administrative accountability, or the failure of districts to monitor
their schools. It is easy to blame the
victims/students for the failures of the adults. What is needed is an overhaul of our approach
to teaching and learning.
If
students are saying that school is too easy, the fault is not the students, it
is the failure of uninformed educational leaders who continue to trust in an
antiquated approach that teaching and learning that is fixed. This ideological insanity does not fit the
needs of a global economy. School is too
easy should be our new moniker for educational reform.
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